The Ultimate Winter Beauty Product, According to Our Editors
The Ultimate Skin-Care Product You Need This Winter — and How Our Editors Are Using It
If we could recommend just one skin-care product to heal, protect, and moisturise your entire body, it would be Aquaphor. We love a product that can multitask, and Aquaphor is pretty much the holy grail when it comes to promising — and delivering — effective results that last. Trust us, the hype is real.
For us, Aquaphor is a bona-fide must have for dry, cracked, or irritated skin. It comes in two forms, body ointment spray and soothing skin balm, both of which work hard to accelerate skin regeneration. We especially love how the spray can help you hydrate hard-to-reach places like your back. Meanwhile, the balm is perfect for moisturising your lips and spot treating cracks, cuts, and minor burns. It's safe to use on the whole family, too, as it's fragrance-free and preservative-free. No matter how and where you use it, though, Aquaphor is clinically proven to soothe and repair damage, all by creating a protective skin barrier.
The one-product wonder already has a permanent spot in our skin-care routines, and it deserves one in yours, too. Ahead, check out how our editors use it every day. Soon, you'll wonder what you ever did without it.
"As someone with chronically thirsty skin, I'm always looking for ways to lock in hydration and rebuild my moisture barrier. The K-beauty skin-care trend called 'slugging' has been my answer to winter dry-skin woes. After applying my nighttime hydrating products, I slather on a pea-sized amount of Aquaphor over my face. It's an occlusive, meaning it traps in all that good moisture, so I wake up with skin that is dewy and glistening — no flakes in sight."
"It seems every time my son comes home from nursery, he has a new bump, cut, or rash. The latest issue we've been dealing with is a patch of eczema that we cannot get to go away. It's all around his mouth, and we think him wearing a drooly mask all day at school keeps exacerbating it. The only thing that has been able to tame the flare-up is Aquaphor Healing Ointment. We apply it in the morning and at night, and it provides a nice barrier against drool and other things that make it inflamed."
"My feet — especially my heels — have a tendency to become dry and cracked. Normal lotion doesn’t cut it, but I've learned that the secret to smooth, hydrated feet is Aquaphor. Before bed, I'll apply a generous amount of ointment on each foot and put on socks to seal in the moisture. When I wake up, my feet feel and look brand new. For all of my other Aquaphor needs, I love using the ointment body spray for those hard-to-reach places like my back."
"As much as I love wearing rings on my fingers, it can be annoying in the winter when my hands are always dry and cracked. I love using the Aquaphor Healing Ointment for this specific reason — the ointment soothes my skin, protects it from the elements, and leaves it feeling so soft and smooth. I especially love using it as a spot treatment in the areas around and under my rings, which get particularly dry and irritated."
"When I first started rock climbing, my hands would get torn to shreds. Since I already used Aquaphor for just about everything, I started rubbing it on my cuts and scrapes to speed up their healing time. It also worked wonders on my calluses, giving me toughened skin without any stiffness."
"Eczema is a year-long battle. And winter months are some of the worst when it comes to the dry-skin struggle. My eyelids get pretty irritated once the temperature starts to drop, which makes applying makeup a pain (literally). Before bed, I lightly dab a little bit of Aquaphor ointment over my eyelids, and voila! I wake up with hydrated, refreshed lids."
"Getting my tattoo was a spontaneous decision and a great story I love sharing. Only a few months before my wedding, though, I knew that to make my tattoo feel like a true part of me, I needed to make a few changes. A tattoo artist and friend of mine carefully gave it richer colours and detail and instructed me to keep it lathered with Aquaphor for several weeks after. Tattoos are essentially wounds — pretty ones, of course — and because of that, how they heal can have a huge impact on how this piece of art lives on your body. After cleaning it properly, Aquaphor keeps the dryness at bay, so you're less likely to scratch (or worse, pick scabs!) and the tattoo can heal beautifully."
"I walk at least a few miles a day — more when I'm able to get out of the city for a hiking trip — so I deal with blisters more frequently than I'd like. Whenever I get a hotspot or blister, I slather on Aquaphor Healing Ointment to help my skin heal as fast as possible."
"Which came first: my dry, cranky (and, sorry for the TMI, but occasionally randomly bleeding) cuticles or my subconscious habit of picking at them? I'll truly never know since I've had both since childhood. I'd tried many things — frequent manicures, every hand and cuticle cream on the market — to no avail. But thankfully in recent years, I did discover a cure: Aquaphor. I keep tubes of all sizes in my desk drawer, my handbag, my bedside table, my car's glove compartment, with the hopes that I'll see it and remember to apply at every chance I get. Because just a few frequent applications transform my digits from scary monster claws to hand models. Seriously. Try rubbing some into every nail bed, and when it's absorbed, apply another coat. Apply even more generously at bedtime, and prepare to be amazed."
